Teebike, from old to electric
Contents
French promotion ads from Teebike website
🚲General presentation
Do you dream of an electric bike but don’t want to part with your current superbike? Teebike has created the perfect solution for you, the electric wheel that makes your not-electric bike electric.
The Nice-based startup founded in 2019 has designed a wheel that you can install in minutes in place of your current front wheel. The Teebike wheel is connected via Bluetooth to your phone through the Teebike app, which will allow you to adjust the level of electric assistance according to your needs.
If you want to see (and try) the product with your own eyes, go from Thursday to the Paris fair!
Teebike - Électrifiez le vélo que vous avez toujours aimé?
Gardez votre vélo et passez à l’électrique en installant la roue Teebike et sa batterie intégrée. teebike.ooo
⚙️The technology
Teebike proposes what could be called a bike electrification kit. The idea is simple: you transform your old bike instead of buying a new electric bike. More and more companies are offering this kind of service, so where does Teebike stand out?
It is precisely on the technology that the Parisian company stands out. While electrification kits often require a complex transformation of the bike, with Teebike the transformation is as easy as pie. Indeed, all the system is contained in a single block present on the wheel provided. So, once the kit is received, you only have to change the front wheel (the story of a quarter of an hour) and your old bike now has electric assistance!
The all-in-one system is located in the center of the front wheel. In this big block of 7.5kg, you will find the motor, of 250W, but also the battery, 315 Wh, and the electronic system. Once installed, the system is “controlled” using a smartphone application and via a Bluetooth connection (low consumption). The application is simple but complete, it manages the mode of assistance and contains information on the system (battery status, speed, etc.).
The 315 Wh battery allows a very nice autonomy of at least 60 km, and with a life span of 1,500 recharges (that is to say 90,000 km, with the price of the product at 795€ that makes us… 0.8 cents per kilometer, so we really won’t complain!) And although the autonomy of the product is very good, the load remains very fast: count 3/4h for a complete load. The only drawback is that the system is all-in-one, it is impossible to remove the battery from the wheel to charge it, so you’ll have to have something to charge it in your garage, or, for the bravest, remove the wheel to charge it inside.
From a compatibility point of view, Teebike is open to everyone. Equipped with a “standard” rim, you can install tires from 37 to 62 mm in diameter and are compatible with city, road, trail, and even mountain bike tires. Several wheel sizes are available to meet different needs (20, 24, 26, 27.5, and 28/29 inches), the only constraint: the size of the fork must be 8.5 cm. Some cyclists also remind that considering the weight of the wheel of 7.5kg (against 2kg on average for a lambda wheel), it is recommended not to install the system on an aluminum fork without a shock absorber. Otherwise, the Teebike wheel is compatible with both skate and disc brakes.
🏦Fundraising and Support
In September 2020, Teebike joined the 50 Partners Impact gas pedal. In January 2022, Teebike carried out a participative financing campaign on the platform Sowefund and raised a little more than 400k.
🪙Business Model
The bike proposes two offers: the direct sale of a wheel or the monthly rent with the possibility of purchase.
As for the purchase, the wheel costs 795€ and Teebike offers you the possibility to pay 3/4 times without fees or 10/12 times with fees.
For this price, do you think you can buy a new electric bike? Without talking about environmental issues, you can certainly buy a new electric bike for this price but be aware that it will not have the same performance as what you get with the Teebike wheel.
You can also get a subsidy for a part of the wheel according to different modalities that you will find on the Teebike website But already know that if you are from Paris you are eligible for a public subsidy of 397€, count 264€ for Toulouse and 100€ for Bordeaux.
In addition to finding it on their website, the Teebike wheel is also sold at Darty, Decathlon, or Cdiscount.
And if you don’t have a bike but want to opt for second hand, you can buy a reconditioned bike for 5€ more from the Fondation Les Apprentis d’Auteuil which recovers bikes destined for the scrap heap, reconditions them, and electrifies them, all by apprentices in reintegration, that we train to the cycle trade.
As for the rental, Teebike offers its wheel for rent from 50 € per month without commitment.
Whether you choose to buy or rent, the package that will be delivered to you (free of charge) is composed of the wheel equipped with its city tire, the electric charger, the pedal sensor, the phone holder, and the necessary tools, and the user manual.
💹Market
In 2018 there are 2.7 million bicycles that are sold in France and globally, France sells each year between 2.7 and 3.7 million bikes. Among these bicycles are 60% of city bikes, or 1.62 million bikes if we take the basis of 2018.
So if we make an average over the last 10 years we count 19.2 million bikes sold in France. If we remove the 1.15 million electric bikes sold over this period we arrive at a total of 18.05 million bikes in France that could be equipped with a Teebike wheel.
And the number of cyclists in France is constantly changing. Between 2010 and 2018, the number of cyclists in Paris increased by 30%; Lyon on average by 10% per year; Grenoble by 15%
🤼Competitors
You will find electrification kits on several reseller sites such as Amazon, Ozo, Darty, Decathlon…
Most of the kits propose you change your rear wheel. If you know a lot about bikes, you will agree that it is more difficult and time-consuming to change the rear wheel of your bike (especially because of the chain). Another negative point of going through dealers is the lack of follow-up by customer service.
The business part of this article was written by Emilie Nouacer, the tech part by Mathieu Van de catsije.